You just need a little time to yourself even if you have to attend a board meeting. I’m in Orlando where I serve on the board for the Florida Technology Students Association. We have meetings four times a year and it is so nice to get away from people and dogs needing you to answer a million questions, cook dinner, take the dogs out or find something that is right in front of their faces. This is my view for tonight and tomorrow because I am not going to sit in Orlando at the height of rush hour on a Friday. I’ll just get up on Saturday and drive the hour and a half home. I’ll probably make it home before the rest of my family gets out of bed.

Yeah, I know, poor me right? But here’s the thing. I LOVE Fall. I grew up in Central Louisiana where we had at least some semblance of a fall. I love sweatshirts, hot chocolate, the smell of wood burning, the sight of hunters heading to the woods for whatever is in season.

Here, we joke that Fall in Florida last approximately two days, and that is if we are lucky. I love seeing all the Fall Essentials posts, so since we don’t get a true fall, here is my Fall Essentials–Florida Edition.

* Hurricane Emergency Kit. While everyone else is transitioning to Fall in September, we in Florida are prepping to head into the height of hurricane season. This September, instead of perusing sweatshirts and scarves, I was sitting through six days with no power in days of 90-plus degree heat. And if you are curious as to what is in a hurricane emergency kit, here’s the suggested list from the Hurricane Center: Basic and Suggested Supplies.

* Sunscreen With an average temperatures in the 80s, and many sunny days, sunscreen with impregnable protection is essential. There’s a reason why there are so many plastic surgeons in this area.

* Bug Spray our little creepy crawlies and pesky mosquitoes hang around us for much longer than anywhere else. In fact, I was sitting outside at Halloween bathed in eau de OFF and slapping around the mosquitos. I still managed to get bites on the back of my legs…and I was wearing jeans! They may give us a little relief in January.

* Increased Car Insurance I’m sure you’re saying, “what the heck:” Well, see, we have the invasion of the snowbirds from the north. They begin to arrive around the end of October and they depart around Easter. In the meantime, we get to witness cars going at least 10 miles under the posted speed limit, cars turning left or right from the center lane, cars going the wrong way on major one-way roads, lane creep and increased crashes due to the average age of the snowbird being 90 and having no business driving a car.

* Patience. Lots and Lots of Patience With the influx of our northern visitors and then regular vacationers, lines are long in the grocery store, at restaurants and a stop lights. Whoever said that patience is a virtue has never lived through a Florida snowbird season.

There you have it, my somewhat tongue in cheek Fall Essentials. What are your essentials for Fall? Leave a comment so that I can live vicariously through all of you ‘up north.’

Ever feel like something is off and you just can’t figure out what it is? From the time I got dressed this morning, until around 7am, I just felt like something was off. Couldn’t figure out what exactly, until I was in the teacher’s lounge, waiting to make copies while talking to Karla that I discovered it.The same shoe but in two different colors. One navy, and one black. Now that I look at the photo, I remember why I wasn’t wearing the navy ones anymore. They need to go in the trash. I texted my husband, who promptly laughed at me and sent me this text:

Babe, I love ya, but I’m not blowing an hour to run you a replacement shoe. You’re fine, just quirky!

The kids never noticed despite the fact that they will notice pretty much anything that doesn’t have to do what we are going over in class. Maybe it had something to do with me keeping one set of lights off and hiding behind the rolling cart as I was teaching. I really hoped that this wasn’t an indication of how the rest of my day was going to go. Other than sending three kids out of my first period…before 8am mind you, the day flew by and now roast is in the oven per Amanda’s request. I think I’m going to go find a skein of yarn and cast on a sock..or something easy. I’ll post photos of that tomorrow since you know, it’s 7:00 pm and it’s pitch black outside.